Chapter 3845 — The Tale of the Spirit Jade Card
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Hmph! A good-for-nothing who could not even scrape together a Spirit Jade Card—living on, he would only bring shame upon our Nan Clan. By the way, Martial Nephew, did you search the leader's Spirit Jade Card off his corpse? If the leader returns and finds his card missing, he will fly into a rage!" Nan Tianguan said with a frown.
Across the five great islands of the Heavenly Tier, the Spirit Jade Card was the foremost proof of a person's status and standing. Even the mightiest of experts prized it exceedingly—and the leader of their Three Heroes of the Nan Clan was no exception.
At these words, Yu Jiang's heart tightened at once. The Spirit Jade Card that Nan Tianyong had borrowed from the leader was at this very moment clutched in his own hand, together with the various other treasures he had gathered from Nan Tianyong's corpse.
He knew well enough that without the holder's own true qi, a Spirit Jade Card was useless even in one's grasp—not a single coin of it could be touched, for using the card required the input of true qi and verification through the merchant guilds' joint formation!
Yet Yu Jiang had never been able to resist its temptation! The owner of this Spirit Jade Card was none other than the leader of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan, and the number of spirit jades within was enough to dazzle the eyes of any cultivator—Yu Jiang being no exception.
Word had long circulated in the marketplace that so long as one could find someone on the inside of a top-tier merchant guild or merchant alliance to cooperate, there was a way to withdraw every last spirit jade from another person's card all the same.
So even knowing full well that keeping this Spirit Jade Card on his person was risky, Yu Jiang could not bear to throw it away. The spirit jades within that single card alone were worth as much as all the treasures he had searched off Nan Tianyong's body. These were the very props for his future rise to glory—how could he possibly throw them away?
"To report to Martial Uncle: at the time, Lin Er's great killing move was simply too shocking, and many of my master's belongings were lost. Afterward, a great crowd of onlookers from the nearby marketplace was drawn over, and this disciple, having no time to spare, could only seize my master's remains and flee. As for Eldest Martial Uncle's Spirit Jade Card, this disciple knows not who picked it up in the confusion." Though panic churned in Yu Jiang's heart, his face betrayed nothing as he answered without batting an eye.
There was truth and falsehood mixed in these words, and even a shrewd man like Nan Tianguan would find it hard to judge their veracity on the spot—unless he had suspected Yu Jiang from the very beginning and searched his person or his cave dwelling outright.
Unfortunately for that, though Nan Tianguan and Nan Tianyong had never gotten along, he did harbor a certain appreciation for Nan Tianyong's disciple, Yu Jiang.
With Nan Tianguan's discerning eye, it was easy to see that this lad Yu Jiang, properly cultivated, was the stuff of which great men were made. But in the past, being another's disciple, he could not well meddle, nor had he any interest in meddling, and so had never granted him any boon or guidance.